Fourth of July - Independence Day

It is the Fourth of July weekend. I wish all of you who celebrate this weekend as Independence Day a very happy Fourth and everyone else have a Great Weekend! I want to take this opportunity to give you an update on a few things. Please read on.

Weekend Special

$99.99 Off Setup Fee Plus $25.00 Credit Towards Monthly Fee

Anyone who sign ups for a ChrisLands.com online store between Wednesday, July 2, 2014, 5:00 PM Central Time and Wednesday July 9, 2014, 9:00 AM Central Time will pay only $100 Setup Fee and receive a $25.00 credit towards their monthly fees!

Starting Now

After working on various projects to shore up ChrisLands and, hopefully, ensure its longevity, we are now re-focusing our efforts on a few projects for ChrisLands. I am only mentioning two large ones here, but there are a few smaller features you will see coming online in the near future as well. Here are the two main projects we are starting.

New Store Designs

As I have mentioned in the past, I desperately want to re-write the front end, the customer side, of the stores. I am starting this now. I have a few goals when I am doing this re-write.

HTML5/CSS3 Responsive Design

One Page Checkout

More SEO Features

Better Image Display

Easier Slideshow Integration

Below are a couple of example sites to show you my vision, what I hope to accomplish in this re-design. Please keep in mind these are just examples. Also, there is no need to send me your examples. This is a big project and being inundated with other examples will add to the complexity. Believe, me I have your interests in mind.

If you look at these template pages, at the top you may click the images of various device display sizes to see what they look like in that size display. That is what Responsive means, it looks good in any display size.

Again, these are just examples of what I am shooting for, my inspiration if you will. Unfortunately, the administration side will most likely remain the same. Hopefully I can clean that up sometime after completing this project.

More Stock Data

I am currently negotiating with the data provider for more ISBN coverage (new and old), larger description fields (a full description of the book), and more images. Once I sign the new license agreement (which I have now) and receive the data it will be added to the current ISBN coverage of the Stock Data feature.

My goal is to have this integrated by the end of July. Once integrated, the monthly fees associated with this feature will apply. To see more about Stock Data and Images, you can see more at your store, as the Store Administrator, do the following:

Social Media Service

Landry has completed two courses on Social Media Marketing. The instructor told the class:

If you have a website but not a Facebook page, you are doing it wrong. If you have a Facebook page but not a website you are doing it wrong. To do it right, you need both a website and a Facebook page.

With this in mind, on July 15, 2014, we are launching a Social Media Management service for ChrisLands.com store owners. Basically we will handle your social media efforts!

In researching pricing for our service, we were amazed at what others were charging. Two of the cheapest we found had an hourly service at $74.00 an hour and the other required $1000 setup and $500 a month. Rest assured, as always, ChrisLands will not take advantage of you like that.

More to follow on this service, July 15, 2014. Please be looking for our notice on that day!

MeTesto Professional

We have launched the Professional version of MeTesto.com at MeTestoPro.com, a Text Messaging Service for Businesses and Organizations! MeTesto Professional includes:

NO Signup Fees

NO Monthly Fees

NO Contracts

Contact Management

Contact Lists

Message Management

Send messages to one, a list, or all.

And Much More...

We are only marketing this in the United States right now. I need to test sending text messages to other countries, so I am looking for volunteers from the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. I need two volunteers from each country and you must have a mobile phone that accepts text messages.

If you are interested please send an email to info@chrislands.com with your Country and Phone Number (without country code). I will accept the first two volunteers from each country. Testing will only involve receiving two text messages. Volunteers I use will receive a $10.00 credit towards their monthly ChrisLands' fees.